Andrey Zvyagintsev / Paul Buck / EPA

The film "Leviathan" by director Andrey Zvyagintsev, which won several prestigious awards at world film festivals, did not receive an Oscar in the category "Best Foreign Film". The golden statuette of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences went to the film "Ida" by Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski.

"Ida" is a drama about a Polish girl who spent her childhood in a monastery and only in adulthood learned that her parents were victims of the Holocaust. In the course of the film, she tries to find out about their fate.

The main prize of the American Film Academy was awarded to the film "Birdman" by director Alejandro González Iñárritu. The comedy about the theatrical disaster of a fading Hollywood star was recognized as the best work of the year. In addition, Iñárritu was awarded for best director. "Birdman" also received awards for best screenplay and best cinematography.

Eddie Redmayne, who played the leading role in the film "The Theory of Everything", was recognized as the best actor. Julianne Moore, who played in the film "Still Alice", won in the nomination "Best Actress". Patricia Arquette, who played a role in the film "Boyhood", was recognized as the best supporting actress. The award for best supporting actor was received by J.K. Simmons, who played in the film "Whiplash". This film also received two more "Oscars" - for best sound editing and best editing. "Oscars" in four nominations - "Best Costumes", "Best Makeup", "Best Art Direction" and "Best Music" (composer Alexandre Desplat) were received by the film "The Grand Budapest Hotel".

"City of Heroes" was named best animated film. "Citizen4" about US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden won an Oscar for best documentary.

Earlier, Zvyagintsev's film was left without a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award. In the category "Best Foreign Language Film" it also lost to "Ida".

The world premiere of the film took place in May last year in the main competition program of the 67th International Cannes Film Festival. Since then, Leviathan has participated in festival screenings several times; in Russia, its mass discussion began after the first major prizes received by the film. Thus, Leviathan was awarded the Golden Globe and the prize for best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival. In addition, the film won the London Film Critics Award, as well as four Golden Eagle awards, including awards for best director and best actress. Leviathan also received six prizes at the Russian White Elephant Critics Award and was awarded the highest award at the Egyptian and European Film Festival in Luxor.

In early February, Leviathan was released in Russia on 650 screens at once, although the distributor and producers had initially counted on only 300 screens. In the last few weeks before the release, movie theaters began to make massive requests for copies of the film.

The prospects for the release of Leviathan in Russia were in question - the film could not receive a distribution certificate for a long time due to its non-compliance with the law banning obscene language in works of art, which came into force on July 1 last year. Later, a decision was made to re-dub the film.

At the beginning of the year, a pirated copy of Leviathan appeared on the Internet. In two weeks, according to producer Alexander Rodnyansky, the film was illegally downloaded approximately 1.8 million times.

"Leviathan" is a film about a former paratrooper whose house is taken away by corrupt city authorities in order to build a church on the vacated plot. Zvyagintsev himself previously explained that the film was based on two stories: the Old Testament story of Job and a recent story about a resident of the American state of Colorado who rebelled and bulldozed several buildings after losing his plot of land. The production budget for the film was 220 million rubles. About 35% of this amount was financed by the state through the Ministry of Culture and the Cinema Fund.

"Leviathan" left without an Oscar